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Friday, May 17, 2013

Toilet Paper Shortage In Venezuela

It seems that things aren't going so great in the utopian socialist land of the late Hugo Chavez. Nope. There have been shortages of all sorts of goods, but now the people are having a devil of a time finding toilet paper. Naturally, current Prez Nicolas Maduro blames the opposition, when it actually has to do with Chavez's implementation of price controls.

Either way, the people are not happy about the idea of not having something to wipe their bums with.

Venezuelans scrambled to stock up on toilet paper Thursday as fears of a bathroom emergency spread despite the socialist government's promise to import 50 million rolls.After years of economic dysfunction, the country has gotten used to shortages of medicines and basic food items like milk and sugar but the scarcity of bathroom tissue has caused unusual alarm."Even at my age, I've never seen this," said 70-year-old Maria Rojas. She said she had been looking for toilet paper for two weeks when she finally found it at a supermarket in downtown Caracas.Thousands of rolls flew off the store's shelves as consumers streamed in and loaded up shopping carts Thursday morning."I bought it because it's hard to find," said Maria Perez, walking out with several rolls of paper."Here there's a shortage of everything — butter, sugar, flour," she said. But the latest shortage is particularly worrisome "because there always used to be toilet paper."Economists say Venezuela's shortages of some consumer products stem from price controls meant to make basic goods available to the poorest parts of society and the government's controls on foreign currency.

The country is a mess. But it has been for a long time, thanks to Chavez and socialism.